Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1887-12-08
What = Judge is Like.

ginian The following comments on the
qualifications of judge. As our people
arc deeply interested in this subject. the
paper will DO read with interest. 1t is o
matter of the greatest concern to the people
that the judiciary should be made up OF
| competent, honest and fair minded men.
When great community desires judge,
it desires good thing, and its veal or woe
is far more bound up in the selection than
most persons suppose.
| During term ofsix years, the Judge of our
corporation court will hold in his hands the
fortune and fate of many of our people, and
| from him should emauate those high princi-
Piles of Justice and right, which will make
hiy court the fountain of honor the refuge
/ of the weak, the guard of the friendless, and
the terror of the wrong doers.
| Hence in selecting judge, our aim should
be to secure one:
l. Whose character is spotiess, and whose
life has been aud is pure and blameless. His
court is to be the oracle of right to the com.
munity. It's priest must be pure, else its
utterances must be currupt. IT the fountain
| is not clear, the steam which flows from it
will be soiled.
A Judge must himself be high exempler
OF that rectitnde in morals and those attri.
butes of life which it is his duty to enforce.
The man whose duty it is to apply the law
must, in the EXTREMIST sense Of the term, be
doer Of the law He VITO is to enforce the
payment of debts must be sensitive in the
| recognition of his cwD obligations; and he
| who is to punish criminals must so guard bis
oyYn footsteps that he avoids even the sem
blaoce of evil. As fer as possible he should
f,iE no ih,,ta lair 2nun hyr St pppl
for bishop, and he "a lover of good men,
sober, just, holy. temperate"
He must have good common sense.
Common sense, tempered by the impulses of
pure life, will 90 far toward giving q ju-
dcal inspiration which will guide 10 the
proper rconclusion--that common sense which
| is developed in every Gay life and in every
day affairs. and which is the basis oial true
success in any line of duty. Without it n
Judge is valueless; eye, worse, is great
wrong to the rights ofa community. Under
the term common sense, as applied &c the
| judiciary, are ranged those indispensable ne
cessities Of judicial character, steadiness of
purpose. courage of convictions, yeticeuce,
| self-control, patience, and the capacity to
tread the narrow path
'"Twizt the dangerous shores of will and udg-
ment"
1t is common sense and high personal
G cFaractar which, make judge iustum ct
tenacen propoSiti uirum.
3 L. arued IN law Bacon says: Judges
/ ought 20 be more learned than witty, more
reverend han plausible, and more advised
THAI confident" Learning is essential ;
the norethe judge has, the better-provided
his learning is toned by reason. judge
whose knowledge is not great on the funda-
mental principles of the law-of that law
which Is the resultant OF human experience
and the observation of the wise and good
and whose reading has not made him famil-
lar with the mode in which those principles
should be applied, is not fit person to
whom should be committed the rights of in
Gividuas and the protection of society.
Thai he may be fitted for this high duty,
learning is necessary requisite.
Duke Wharton, in the True Briton, No.
60, cited by Campbell in his life of Lord
Nottingham, snd in I Story Eq. 46, says o
Judge should sit ION his throne with a ray
Of glory abou. his head, his ermine without
spot or blemish, his balance in his right
hand, mercy in his left, splendor and brig bit.
ness at his feet, and his tongue dispensing
truth. goodness, virtue and justice to man.
kind"
II we cannot secure such judge, let US
get as near it as possible.